Applecare/Warranty for Students (UK)

Hi there, I sort of ended up talking about this on one of my other threads but it was a bit off topic and I'm still confused so I was hoping someone could clear this up for me.

Okay, so basically a few months ago, one of the sales assistants in my local Apple store told me that I should wait till the BTS promotion is running before I purchase my Macbook. She also said that I should get AppleCare with them because for students it's ~£50 whereas for everyone else it's about £200. Now ordinarily, I wouldn't pay much attention to extended warranties and what not, but with me starting university in September, and with ~£50 being a really good price for three years cover, I thought it might be a worthwhile investment.

Now I've looked around on Apple's website but I couldn't find any AppleCare add-on for ~£50, but I did come across a link someone posted on here a while ago, and in that link, it's got the three year Applecare for £48.
(http://store.apple.com/uk_edu_5000710/configure/MD760B/A?)

Other than that link though, it would appear that the AppleCare cover for that price is nonexistent.

So I did some snooping around and I came across their T&Cs for their HE Contract. And it would seem that their three year cover is actually free.


The contract states:

2. Warranty Period for Apple-Branded Goods. In this Agreement, “Warranty Period” shall mean such warranty period as is applicable to the Order but which shall not be less than

2.1 36 calendar months in relation to all current Apple-branded desktop and portable computer Goods only; and

2.2 12 calendar months in relation to all other Apple-branded hardware Goods only.

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and it also goes on to say:

4.1 For the purposes of this Agreement, the telephone support service included in the Apple Warranty for Apple-branded desktop and portable computer Goods only shall be extended to one year from the date of purchase (the date of invoice) or up to one year from the date of first use where the Buyer has given Notice to the Seller in accordance with clause 2 above.

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(http://store.apple.com/Catalog/uk/Images/salespolicies_institutionHE.html)

So I'm under the impression that the £48 AppleCare is for three year cover + three year telephone support as opposed to the one year telephone support offered in the HE Contract.

But is this the only difference?
Because if all I'm missing out on is telephone support, then I'd happily just take the free three year cover that's offered in the HE Contract.

I'm just a bit confused that there's not much talk of this HE Contract and the warranty. I think it's only applicable to UK customers, but even still, it's all very hush hush.

Has anyone purchased a Mac recently with their HE Education discount and received this free three year cover?

Thank you!

grooveattack said:

Buy it.

If your a student its a no brainer, its so cheap. You won't fine that price on apple.com because you have to be behind a uni firewall to access it. In store with student id will work out the same though (or at least any proof that you are going to be a student in sept)

you will get 3 years tech support and three years phone support. It also helps keep up resale value if you choose to upgrade next year.

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Ah that makes sense why I can't find it online.

But what am I paying for? If I'm already being given 3 years cover for free via the HE Contract, I don't want to pay £48 merely for telephone support.

This is why I'm confused. Is that the only thing what's not included in the free warranty for HE students? Because I don't think I can justify spending ~£50 for phone support I probably won't use. I live near two Apple stores so if I had any problems, I'd just take the machine there. I wouldn't need phone support.

I've just spoken to someone on the Apple site and they've confirmed that the HE Contract covers three years parts and labour and one year phone support.

Given that I'll be making the purchase off campus though, the only way for me to get the discount would be through the Unidays website.

Does anyone know if I'll still receive the HE Contract warranty if I don't purchase the computer through a HE campus server?

Thanks.

dmchapman said:

Yes, if purchased under the HE agreement, you get 3 years parts and labour. the uplift to 3yrs apple care is cheap as it doesn't need to cover the repairs as they are covered with the core agreement. All the 50 quid(ish) gets you is the phone support for the extra two years.

That's phone support for MacOS - you still just ring them when you have a hardware fault. Alternatively, just take it to a local apple approved repair place We (a uk Uni) tend take them to a local place who repairs as it's convenient for us, but it's up to you how you want that to work. Apple stores will take them for repair, or you can get onsite (they turn up, and take it away - rare they fix onsite).



You have to ensure the purchase is under the HE contract. I'm assuming you are staff or student at a current HE institution (if not, you aren't covered anyway). If so, then purchasing from your institutions IP range (network) is the simplest. However, if you are not there, as long as you can access your email in a .ac.uk domain then you should be able to phone them and order. They will email the address to ensure you really are that person.

Apple HE store has some info and the T&Cs.

The other option is to use remote access in some way - we offer VPN access to students - does you institution? If so, you should be able to use that to relay through your institutions IP range and get access to the website that way.

The key thing is to ensure your purchase is under the "UK HE National Agreement" - that's the agreement that has been decided between the UK framework negotiation team and Apple. It's the only contract that will get you the full HE discount (slightly better than the normal education discount) and the HE 3 years repair warranty (excellent value, and not usually an option without the phone support). This is possible over the phone, I've done it many times myself.

Darren

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Thank you sooo much! You've really cleared things up. Right, I'll have to pop into my campus next month then!